Читать книгу The Making of a Motion Picture Editor - Thomas A. Ohanian - Страница 19

Partial Credits: Fifty Shades of Grey, The Golden Compass, Unfaithful, Erin Brockovich, Out of Sight, In the Line of Fire, Chaplin, Raw Deal, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, The Elephant Man, The Eagle Has Landed, Murder on the Orient Express, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Becket, Lawrence of Arabia, The Pickwick Papers.

What do you say about an editor who has been working in motion pictures for over 70 years? Who, in every decade of her work, has made significant contributions to cinema? Sitting in her home for our interview, there are two awards that sit high atop a wooden shelf. The Oscar and BAFTA awards for Lawrence of Arabia. Gracious, patient, and terrifically funny.

TO: Anne, you are an Academy Award Best Editing recipient for Lawrence of Arabia. You have been recognized with a BAFTA Academy Fellowship and an ACE Career Achievement Award. For your contributions to the industry, you received an honorary Oscar 53 years after winning for Lawrence of Arabia. You were awarded the Office of the British Empire (O.B.E.) and have been an inspiration to filmmakers and editors around the world.

AC: Thank You.

TO: And while so much has been written about Lawrence of Arabia—deservedly so—I think Beckett is just incredible.

AC: I think it’s such a beautiful film.

TO: How did you get started on this journey?

AC: To begin with, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a horse race trainer. (Laughs) I began to go to the cinema. The school started taking us to see the classics—Jane Eyre and, particularly, Wuthering Heights which changed my whole life. Apart from falling in love with Laurence Oliver, it opened up a whole new concept to me of storytelling. I think we were reading it in school and it’s quite heavy going. And to suddenly see it there in pictures alive with real people!

TO: This is the William Wyler directed film.

AC: Yes, and I knew very little about films. So I started to look into ways of getting into the film industry. Now you think it would have been easy for me because my Uncle was Lord Rank.

TO: He headed up the Rank Organization, which owned film studios and theatres.

AC: Yes. I was very fond of him but he didn’t really want me going into the film industry. I had to convince him that I was not going into it for the glamour or the actors and that I really wanted to make films and tell stories. But he put me into religious films, which is why he got started in the business in the first place. He was very religious and taught Sunday School and thought film was a good way to get through to people. And he probably thought ‘That’ll damper her ardor!’ (Both Laugh) But it didn’t! And that’s the first time I saw 35mm film.

TO: What did they have you do at that time?

AC: I did all sorts of jobs. I was a P.A. I made the tea and the coffee, looked after people. I became quite a good projectionist. I did sound, repairing films.

TO: That was a great way to learn all the basics.

AC: I loved it. I really did. I heard there was a job for a second assistant in the cutting rooms at Pinewood Studios. And they asked if I knew how to do opticals and I said yes and that I could splice. But most of the things they asked me about I had no idea what they were, let alone do them! (Both Laugh) But I said yes to all of them. And it’s a bit of advice that I give to students always. I say, ‘If you’ve got confidence in yourself, say yes, and then find out’. And hope for the best!

TO: Sure.

AC: I went to friends of mine who were in proper cutting rooms and spent two weeks with them, learning the routine and that sort of thing. And then I reported to work.

TO: That’s great.

AC: I had gotten the job and an amazing thing happened. It was a film called The End of the River, being produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. I was mostly splicing and hanging up trims. And apparently Michael and Emeric didn’t like the job the editor was doing, so they gave the film to their top editor, who was cutting The Red Shoes—Reggie Mills. Reggie didn’t want to use the first assistant. He said, ‘No, send Anne up with the film’. So, there I was on my very first picture, working with one of the very best editors.

TO: That’s amazing.

AC: Yes, it was amazingly interesting. I wish I were a little more experienced—I would have learned more than I did, but I learned a lot. And I also had the opportunity of helping out on The Red Shoes with some of the splicing and syncing of their dailies. And I got to spend time on the floor watching Mickey (Michael Powell) directing, which was very interesting. And I was very, very lucky because within about five years I was editing. I did a few jobs as a first assistant and then I got a break on a live action Robin Hood that Disney was making.

TO: Okay, so that was The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, directed by Ken Annakin.

AC: Yes. I was cutting the second unit because the editor couldn’t keep up with two units and they liked what I did. And I did some cutting and then went back and was an assistant again.

TO: So, constantly back and forth…

AC: Yes, exactly. I always thought that it was more important to keep working. And then I was working with my friend, Clive Donner, and he was offered Pickwick Papers, but he couldn’t do it. I knew the producer and said to him, ‘Why don’t you put me up for it?’

TO: This was going to be your first feature as a full editor…

AC: Right. So I went for an interview with Noel Langley, who was a first-time director. You know, there’s a lot of luck in not only getting your first feature but also beyond and being in the right place at the right time. It usually works out. Only once in my life have I been offered two really top pictures at the same time. And I think I made the right choice.

TO: I can’t wait for you to tell me.

AC: One was Lolita with Stanley Kubrick and the other was Lawrence of Arabia.

TO: I had no idea…

AC: Yeah. You know, it was funny at that time because Kubrick was a red-hot director. And I was quite tempted.

TO: How did you decide?

AC: My husband said, ‘You can’t even dream of not working with David Lean if he wants you!’ (Laughs) And you know, a funny thing happened. And I haven’t actually told this story before because it only just happened the other day. I was turning out some paperwork here, and I came across some old letters. And one started, “Dear Mr. Spiegel, I’m afraid that I can’t cut Lawrence of Arabia because you’re not offering enough money.” Now it wasn’t worded exactly like that, but I did explain at length that I wasn’t going to work for that kind of money on a film that was going to be working day and night, etc. “Thank you very much. Goodbye.”

TO: That’s amazing.

AC: But the interesting thing is that, because I have it, I never sent it! (Both Laugh) Because if I had sent it, my life might have been totally different! (Both Laugh)

TO: Yeah.

AC: But I know why I didn’t send it when I think about it. I’m sure my husband said, ‘Don’t you dare send that letter!’ (Laughs) But, you know, I was so angry and we were negotiating and they were offering so little money. And typical me—to leap into that without stopping to think…

TO: But it was David Lean. Coming off of The Bridge on the River Kwai…

AC: Yes, but it’s funny. If I had of sent it, it wouldn’t have happened. So, I’m going to give it to the Academy museum.

TO: What a great story. (Both Laugh)

AC: Yeah and I just found it and remembered the story. I haven’t really told it before.

TO: Thanks for telling me. So much has been written about Lawrence that can be found in many books and documentaries. And because I didn’t want to ask you a question that you’ve probably answered hundreds of time, one of the things I’ve wanted to ask you is that when you look at this body of work that you have been involved with, what stands out?

AC: Well, I don’t know if there are moments that stand out—it’s the whole film. After David finished shooting it, we had 16 weeks before the Queen saw it. Which as you know, being an editor, 16 weeks to finish a film that’s three hours and forty minutes? I had the whole picture cut except for the last battle scene, which David was still shooting. He came off the battle scene and straight into the cutting room. And we were working day and night to get the film ready. Seven days a week, 16 to 17 hours a day. And sometimes I think that if we had more time we may have done some things differently. So, we finished the film and everybody’s consensus was that it was a great film, but it was too long. After we had shown it to the Queen, I went back with David and we cut out about 15 minutes from it. And I think I was even more upset than David was about that because I thought all the scenes were great and very beautiful.

TO: Was it overwhelming to get all that material?

AC: The difficulty was that I could make another film out of the outtakes! (Both Laugh) We had such beautiful stuff. The mirage work was amazing. In fact, we cut one of the mirage sequences out just before we finished it.

TO: Was that difficult?

AC: You know, David… I so admired him. He was so brave with taking stuff out. Much more than me and he taught me two or three things about editing that were invaluable. Things like holding shots and visualizing them with music and all sorts of things like that. Whereas I would have been chopping it down a bit more I think. He also taught me to have the courage of my conviction. He said, ‘If you think you’re right, say it! Work on it and show people what you think. And always follow your own truth and be truthful about what you do.’

TO: It’s interesting that when you watch documentaries about filmmaking almost always there is the clip of the match. I watched one the other day on the magic of film editing and of course it was right there. It has taken on such an iconic status in our little world of film editing.

AC: (Laughs) I know! I don’t know why. One of my children said to me the other day, ‘Mum, why is that cut so famous?’ (Laughs) I mean, I couldn’t explain why. Some journalist from Australia rang me up at three o’clock in the morning once to ask me what I was thinking when I did it! (Both Laugh) Ten years later!

TO: That’s hilarious.

AC: I can’t put my finger on the magic of that, really.

TO: A captured moment in a film full of them.

AC: I’ll tell you an interesting thing about it that I’ve thought about since that I didn’t at the time. I was cutting on a 35mm Cinemascope print and because the film was butted together and just had the crayon marks on it where the dissolve was going to be. And when we took it into the theatre, we saw the cut going from the match blowing to the sunrise.

TO: It was going to be a dissolve instead of that cut…

AC: Yes, and we would never have done that had it been on digital because we’d have done the dissolve in the machine, probably, and never really looked at it. But we saw—David and I—the potential of that. Because I had gotten David into direct cutting.

TO: What do you mean?

AC: I had gotten him to go see some of the French films before we started. They were doing all of this direct cutting and David loved it when he saw it. And I think we did it as well as anybody. But again, if we had been on digital, we might not have seen it. But on film, we saw it and we thought, ‘My God, it works as a cut’. And we rubbed the lines off and looked at it again. And he said to me, ‘It’s not quite right, Annie, take it away and take a few frames off and see if you can make it really perfect.’ And I literally took two frames off, took it back, and he said, ‘That’s it.’

TO: That’s a great story.

AC: Yeah (Laughs).

TO: Were you astonished about the awards it received and that you won an Academy Award?

AC: I was totally astonished that I won an award. I didn’t even know what a nomination was! I knew so little about the Academy Awards. They flew over Peter O’Toole and Omar and people like that.

Anne’s Oscar and BAFTA awards for Lawrence of Arabia

Photos by Tom Ohanian

TO: So how did you find out?

AC: David rang me in the morning and said, ‘Well, you won and then I knew we were going to do fairly well.’ Because he said that if editing won, that was a fairly good omen. But, no, I didn’t expect to win.

TO: What films are some of your favorites?

AC: Wuthering Heights is still my very favorite film, ever. I just think it was fantastic. Have you ever seen Les Enfants du Paradis?

TO: Sure. I know it as Children of Paradise, the English name.

AC: I love that film. I definitely have that on my top ten.

TO: What highlights stand out in this amazing career of yours?

AC: You know there was always something that Carol Reed once said to me that’s always been a highlight. He said, ‘I’ve worked with many really good editors, but you’re the one with the most heart.’ And I think that’s something that I really treasure. There have been so many ups and downs in life. You know, things I’ve been disappointed about. I mean I really wanted to cut A Man for all Seasons.

TO: What happened?

AC: They wanted me to do it. And they rang up who they thought was my agent. And he said, ‘She’s not free, she’s busy.’ And they hired somebody else. And by that time, I thought, ‘I’m going to ring up myself and ask Bill Graf (Executive Producer) if they were thinking of me. And he said, ‘Are you free? I thought you were busy! We just hired somebody yesterday. If you had rung up yesterday, it would have been yours.’

TO: Oh, no.

AC: Well, there was disappointment. There’s a funny story that I actually think is rather sweet about (The) Horse’s Mouth.

TO: You did that for Ronald Neame, with Alec Guinness.

AC: Yes, and that was really my step up in my career. It wasn’t Lawrence, as everyone thinks, because before that I had done Horse’s Mouth and Tunes of Glory, which I think was Ronnie Neame’s best film, actually.

TO: That’s a great film.

AC: Lovely film. Both of them. I rang up for an interview and Ronnie said, ‘Well, actually, I don’t like employing women.’ (Laughs) And then he said, ‘And I certainly wouldn’t employ a married woman because they’re always trying to get home to their husband and children.’ But then he said, ‘But I’ll take a chance with you’ and it was a great break and I was very excited about it—working with Ronnie Neame and Alec Guinness! Ronnie and I became the closest of friends for many years.

TO: There’s a really cool Criterion DVD for the film…

AC: And just a few months before I had met my future husband. After I was on the film for a month, we wanted to get married. And I thought, ‘Well, I can’t tell Ronnie!’ (Laughs) We were going to have a big, white wedding. And I said, ‘Let’s go get married secretly and we won’t tell anybody.’ So we did. We had a two-day honeymoon and our families came. I used to take off my wedding ring and hang it on a gold chain around my neck when I drove in to the studios.

TO: Hmm…

AC: For three months this went on. And then one day we were in the office and Ronnie was saying something and then I said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, Ronnie, I have been married for three months and have you noticed any difference in my performance?’

TO: Good for you.

AC: Yeah. And the producers were there. And they all clapped and said, ‘No! Absolutely not!’ And Ronnie said, ‘We’re very happy with you.’ And then he said, ‘Next thing you’ll say is that you’re pregnant.’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am!’ (Both Laugh)

TO: You know, I wish that people would re-discover Beckett.

AC: Isn’t that a beautiful film?

TO: It’s a great film.

AC: The dialogue is unbelievable. It’s one of my favorites because of the script, the dialogue, and the characters. When I first got the dailies, I was terribly disappointed.

TO: Why?

AC: (Laughs) Because I was used to having big landscapes coming in. But then it all started coming alive and it was a beautiful film. And to cut those performances—they (Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton) were both so good. The only time I’ve come across that recently was when I did In The Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich.

TO: Eastwood and Malkovich are great together.

AC: They’re so brilliant. (Laughs) You didn’t know who to be on, because you wanted to be on both of them! Particularly on the telephone conversation.

TO: You do Lawrence and then you do Beckett and yet this is the same woman who does Erin Brockovich and In The Line of Fire. She can do anything. That’s how I think of you.

AC: (Laughs) And then we got an acting nomination for Diane Lane in Unfaithful. I like to think of myself as an actor’s editor, actually. John Malkovich thanked me and I thanked him for the great work he did.

TO: Your work in Out of Sight is really remarkable.

AC: George Clooney and I are great friends and have been for many years. He actually leapt over the railings at the Oscars to come and give me a hug.

TO: There was a lot of controversy on how to end Unfaithful…

AC: We had three completely different endings. And we reshot the scene in the car and finally we went back to the original.

TO: How involved do you get in being consulted in situations like that?

AC: Very involved in that particular case. Adrian Lyne liked to involve you a lot. I was very involved in the ending and we previewed it this way and that way. And I always knew which ending I liked and we stuck to it. Richard Gere liked that ending to begin with but we got sidetracked with a lot of opinions, which led to the reshooting. Eventually we went back to the original ending.

TO: Where the car just sits at the intersection…

AC: Yes. Which was allowing people to make up their own minds.

TO: It’s a much more interesting film that way, though…

AC: (Laughs) But, of course. That’s the best ending. You know, everyone I was talking with and even my crew—they all had different ideas. Some thought he should go into the police station. Some thought he should fly off. So, everyone was divided. But if you left it like that, then people could make up their own minds.

TO: Can you recall when you first started seeing Lawrence with that majestic score?

AC: Yes, but the thing was that we were scoring the music on one stage and our music editor was laying it up in the cutting room. But, they weren’t always happy with what Maurice (Jarre) was doing. So, they were redoing the music overnight and we were getting new pieces of music to lay up the next day. I remember they wanted more timpani. Sam wanted more theme because he knew he could sell it. David wanted more violins because he loved violins.

TO: Well, I suppose that would make sense. There was Bridge on the River Kwai with Colonel Bogey’s theme and Bridge and Lawrence had that commercial cross over to selling music.

AC: That’s right. Exactly. I’ll tell you—you go all over the world and you’ll hear the Lawrence of Arabia theme being played. I’ve been amazed. I was in India and China and there it is—always being played.

TO: Incredible. It’s kind of like a triple play—Colonel Bogey’s March, the theme from Lawrence, and Lara’s theme from Dr. Zhivago.

AC: But, yes, it was exciting seeing the music on it. It was also exciting seeing and hearing it in stereo. I was adjusting the audio levels on the camels as they were going across the screen because we didn’t have enough hands! (Laughs)

TO: During mixing? That’s funny. In recent times when you see the films that are coming out, are there films that stand out for you?

AC: I thought (The) Social Network was a beautifully edited film.

TO: Why?

AC: Because I was always looking at who I wanted to look at. The emotions were right, the rhythms were right. It was cut fast but not so fast that I couldn’t appreciate what people were thinking and what was happening. And I like that. I like fast cutting but I don’t like fast cutting when it’s just things flashing past my eyes and I have no idea what it is. That’s television to me! (Laughs)

TO: I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that you were always looking at what you wanted to be looking at.

AC: Yes.

TO: Were there films that you edited that didn’t do as well as you thought they should have?

AC: Yes, yes. One is I Love You to Death. Have you seen that?

TO: Yeah, yeah, that’s with Kevin Kline.

AC: I think that’s a brilliant film. A wonderful cast. Tracey Ullman, William Hurt, Keanu Reeves, Joan Plowright, River Phoenix. Some of it is so funny even now when I see it. And I loved working with Larry Kasdan. We had such a good time. We were so happy on it. We thought we had a really good film. And we got the most terrible ratings. They hated the film.

TO: Why?

AC: Black comedy does not go well in America. We spent three million putting another ending on it and the marks went up only something like three percent.

TO: Do you think previews are useful?

AC: I think they make the film worse. Studios will lose all enthusiasm for a film if it gets low marks. When I did Chaplin, we did the preview and got an 84. And everyone was totally flabbergasted. So they decided to do a preview out of town and they got an 82. So they were even more astounded. And that film—I don’t think it made more than 30 or 40 million worldwide. I mean it absolutely didn’t make any money. So, you can’t tell.

TO: There was the best actor nomination…

AC: Robert was wonderful. When I showed Robert’s The Little Tramp scene to Chaplin’s daughter, Geraldine, who was playing her mother, she burst into tears. She said, ‘He’s so lifelike—just like Daddy.’ It was just extraordinary—he was very good. But I think they advertised it wrong. They did a really nice poster of him as The Little Tramp but the story wasn’t about that. It was about him and the women. You know, in talking about moments that really stand out, do you know how I got Lawrence?

TO: No.

AC: I cut the tests of Albert Finney. David had done a week’s testing of Finney. Three days of him as ‘The Arab’ and a couple of days of him as ‘The English’. I got a call from John Palmer, who was a Line Producer. And he said, ‘Do you want to come in? So I went down and David was very austere but friendly. And he shot the first scene, which was the Arab scene. He gave me some notes on how he wanted it to go and I took it away and cut it. Then we were running dailies on the English scene. And he said, ‘Have you cut that first scene yet?’ And I said, ‘I have. I’d like to show it to you tomorrow if you have time.’ And he said, ‘No, no, show it to me now.’ And the whole crew was there and I said, ‘David, not in front of the whole crew!’ And he said, ‘Go ahead and run it at once!’ So I went away, terrified…

TO: I’ll bet.

AC: And I came back and I had to show it to the whole crew. I was so terrified; I think I had my eyes shut. My mind was so frozen when I ran it for David. And he got up and said, ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything cut exactly as I would have done it myself.’

TO: That’s fabulous.

AC: And that was a lovely moment. The tests with Albert Finney are amazing. They’re in the BFI (British Film Institute) in London and you can see them.

TO: I have to do that someday.

AC: Peter made it his own and nobody can imagine anyone but Peter in that role. But, in fact, Albert Finney did a wonderful test.

TO: I wanted to go back to In The Line of Fire for a moment. It seemed an unusual choice for you at the time. What drew you to it?

AC: Well, I had a very good reputation but when I came over (from England) I couldn’t do union films because I wasn’t in the union. I mean, they wanted me to do Fatal Attraction and the union wouldn’t let me.

TO: I didn’t know that.

AC: My then agent got me an interview with Wolfgang Petersen. There were three editors they were interviewing: Me, Tom Rolf, and another who I can’t remember. My agent acted very quickly and said to them, ‘Anne is only going to be here for three days and maybe you could see her.’ Wolfgang agreed and I went to his house and I told him how interesting the film was, particularly the telephone conversation. I said, ‘They really interest me. I think they’ll be so exciting to cut.’ And apparently that’s what he really liked. That’s what attracted me—these two personalities, dancing around each other.

TO: I think that’s the best part of the movie.

AC: Yes, that’s what I loved. Clint and John were both equally interesting actors.

TO: Kwai came out in 1957. Had you seen it?

AC: Of course, but that was edited by Peter Taylor. And he thought he was going to do Lawrence.

TO: Okay, so you meet Lean and he had just done this huge picture. What did you think about Kwai?

AC: I thought it was a fantastic film. I knew Lawrence was going to be enormous but it really didn’t scare me.

TO: No?

AC: You’re confident at that age; do you know what I mean?

TO: Sure. Did you have a good working relationship with David Lean?

AC: I was initially really scared of him because he was a top editor and I was up and coming. And particularly when he was on the floor shooting, he was very severe. But he loved the work I had done on the tests and then we got on really well in the cutting room day and night. Working with David was so exciting—almost exhilarating. Sometimes we argued, but mostly we were in total step. David used to say to me, ‘Now if you’ve got an idea, Annie, don’t keep it bottled up, tell me.’ And I’d do so and he’d say, ‘Oh, that’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard.’ But he’d do it in such a nice way. And then a few days later, he’d come ‘round and say, ‘You know what you came up with the other day? Well, there are bits of rubbish in it but out of it, I did start to think that if we did this, and this, and this…’

TO: Well, at least he admitted it…

AC: And I thought, ‘Good…Good… One can do all these little things from behind the scenes that make a big difference.’

TO: Of course.

AC: (Both Laugh) But I could see my crew cringe when David would say, ‘It’s rubbish’, but I would mentor them and tell them, ‘Do you realize that if I hadn’t said that, we wouldn’t be doing this?’—meaning to better the film. And the two assistants I had went on to become really good editors.

TO: Who were they?

AC: Norman Savage. When I couldn’t do Doctor Zhivago, Norman did it. David offered me Doctor Zhivago, but I couldn’t do it because I was having a baby—my daughter. And Ray Lovejoy, who cut 2001 and Dr. Strangelove for Kubrick. I actually got Ray the job. They were both top editors, but they both died very young, unfortunately.

TO: It’s wonderful to know that you mentored them and then they went on to edit those films.

AC: I really believe in helping young people as much as possible. You don’t have to wait to be an editor. If you’ve got the gift for it, you should take your opportunity when it arrives.

TO: Anne, it’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today. I want to thank you for all your time. Any parting words?

AC: I love my work. I love editing and thank you very much!